


An Education.

by Sententiae



Category: Sono Te wo Dokero | Hands Off!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-16
Updated: 2012-12-16
Packaged: 2017-11-21 06:16:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/594417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sententiae/pseuds/Sententiae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s amazing what a near death experience can do for your health.  Tatsuki/Yuuto.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Education.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eirenical (chibi1723)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibi1723/gifts).



> First Hands Off! fic, I apologise for any character inconsistencies. Hope this works ok as a little treat! I was really inspired especially by your comment that BOTH Tatsuki and Yuuto are damaged. I think there are times when, because Yuuto acts often like he’s totally fine, it clouds the fact that he’s got some quite deep issues as well.

The first couple of hours back at school after Yuuto’s little stabby incident were totally awesome. Guys looked at Yuuto with barely concealed awe, their eyes twitching jealously down to the small of Yuuto’s back (and not, for once, because they were checking out his admittedly awesome derriere). Pretty, pretty girls patted him sympathetically on the shoulder or clutched his hands to their chests, all the while commenting breathlessly about how courageous he had been. Truth be told, Yuuto wasn’t supposed to be back at school for another couple of weeks. Still, there were only so many ways to keep yourself occupied at home before you not only started talking to the walls, they started answering back.

So, yeah? Those first couple of hours? Awesome. Yuuto thought he could totally live off the high of admiration and soft, manicured hands, at least right up until the moment the pain killers started to wear off. 

Whoops. He sort hadn’t planned for that. Normally, when the pain became a little too much, Yuuto just reached for his sleeping tablets and knocked himself out for a bit. It wasn’t exactly what his doctor had recommended, however Yuuto liked to think that someone, somewhere, looked on his creativity approvingly. 

This wasn’t primary school, and so there was no designated nap time that Yuuto could slip into his day. Besides, he’d left his sleeping tablets at home. He hadn’t seen a situation where they might add to his glorious return.

Pity. 

Tatsuki found him resting up in their classroom, eyes cloudy with pain and resting back inelegantly against his desk. Everyone else was out at lunch, the lucky bastards. He’d meant to reapply his dressings – had even gotten the new ones out of his bag! – but even that was stupidly beyond him right now.

And Tatsuki stood in the doorway, taking in Yuuto’s complete and utter uselessness with impatient eyes. 

“Fancy seeing you here!” Yuuto said with a little wave, fully aware that he was only earning more and more of the other boy’s disdain. Still, it wasn’t like he’d asked Tatsuki to come, he’d turned up all on his own violation. “What did you leave behind?” Lunch box? School bag? Attractive and awesome friend who was maybe trying to hide just a touch of pain behind a flirty smile? 

Annoyance and frustration flared through Tatsuki’s aurora. Yuuto considered both successes, but his eyes narrowed thoughtfully when something else sparked around the edges of Tatsuki’s emotions.

“Don’t tell me you are concerned?” Yuuto teased, eyes widening in delight when Tatsuki’s gaze darkened. “You are!” Yuuto swooned dramatically back against his desk. “To think, I’ve spent months trying to win you over with my devastatingly good looks and incomparable charm.” He peeked up at Tatsuki through his bangs. “You should have told me that all it would take to make you care was a near-death experience or two. I thought that kind of thing only worked with your cousin.” Not that Yuuto was a little bitter about that, oh no. What sane person could resist the undeniable cuteness that was Kotarou in distress?

It was just that sometimes ... yeah. Sometimes he felt as though he belonged somewhere important with the odd-ball cousins, and that he brought a sense of stability and normality to their lives. Then there were those frustrating other times, when Yuuto was maybe that annoying hanger-on who had all the funny jokes but was maybe – just occasionally – the punch line as well. 

“You’re an idiot,” Tatsuki replied emotionlessly.

Yuuto nodded in agreement.

“Noted.”

Tatsuki wasn’t exactly one of those people who voluntarily entered others’ personal space, and Yuuto was really, really missing his pain killers. As a result, Yuuto reacted sluggishly (read: not at all) when Tatsuki moved up in front of him, his gaze clinically sweeping over the roll of bandages and the hand resting optimistically beside them.

“Lift your shirt.”

And really, who was Yuuto to say no to such a delightfully unexpected command? Yuuto _was_ admittedly a devilishly sexy young man-

Tatsuki pulled him forward, careful hands quickly unwrapping Yuuto’s lacklustre bandages. The knife had missed his spine, but it had torn deep into the muscle. Even the most subtle moments currently hurt like hell, and subtlety was hardly one of Tatsuki’s finer accomplishments. Yuuto bit down on the inside of his mouth as the last of the bandages fell away. He might have done a rather poor wrap job this morning, but the bandages had been the only thing holding the last of the pain in. Now, now it spilled out like ink, clogging up his thoughts with nothing but hot, spiked hurt. He dropped his head down onto Tatsuki’s shoulder, feeling the way his friend flinched slightly at the contact but ... _fuck._

He scrunched his eyes closed and just focussed on breathing. Nimble fingers worked with cold efficiency as they rolled on the new set of bandages, careful not to press flush against his skin and read the scars that remained there too intimately. Yuuto barely noticed at first just how gentle Tatsuki was being, but as the pain flared down to something more reasonable, the quiet skimming of his hands became more difficult to ignore. 

“Easy now,” Yuuto murmured against Tatsuki’s shoulder. “You really could give a sick guy the impression that you were actually worried about him. That would totally screw up your iceman reputation.” 

“Enough.”

Tatsuki released him suddenly, and Yuuto fell back awkwardly against the desk. A shock of pain splintered up his back, and Yuuto sucked in a deep, pained breath. His sharp, flash of a smile was as much of a counter-attack against the pain as Yuuto could manage. Tatsuki, the bastard, looked completely unimpressed by Yuuto’s valiant attempt at bravery. 

Oh, well. It had been nice enough while it lasted. Those sour eyes lingering on him for a moment too long, gentle hands and even breaths that were meant to level out Yuuto’s own, hitched ones. It really was way too easy to get addicted to that kind of thing. And, yeah. Ok. Maybe Yuuto’s go-to smile took on just an edge of ... of maybe bitterness? Regret?

Loneliness.

Man. He really _was_ exhausted. The world was sort of sliding out of focus, and he was too tired to right it again. These sorts of emotions were awkward with a capital A. 

He’d ... he’d never been good with this kind of stuff. Gentle hands and beautifully haunted eyes? Yeah. What the hell were you supposed to do about _that?_

“Enough,” Tatsuki echoed, irritably brushing Yuuto’s bangs from out of his eyes and stripping him bare. “You can be so pathetically insecure, sometimes.”

And Yuuto didn’t like this, not at all. Tatsuki was too close, his gaze ridiculously intense. It was the kind of gaze that smothered away all sense of space, and allowed no room for all the pesky secrets Yuuto normally kept tucked neatly away. Yuuto wasn’t used to other people reading him. He was pretty damn sure that wasn’t how things worked-

The kiss was hard and abrupt, and Yuuto barely had the chance to register the smooth taste of Tatsuki’s mouth (Tatsuki’s lips) before Tatsuki, Tatsuki was leaving, like he’d just done something OTHER than the least expected thing in the world.

“I’m going to get Kotarou to take you home. You’re useless here,” Tatsuki added at the door, a touch derisively. 

And then he was simply gone.

“Uh ... bye?” 

Yuuto lifted his fingers and pressed them experimentally against his lips, a small smile curving beneath them. The shadows that had started to clutter up his mind scampered away, leaving Yuuto light-headed.

Huh.

_Huh._

Who knew that near death experiences could be so educational?


End file.
